Mop wringer



C- 17 w67 H. c. HARRISON ETAL 3,346,906

MOP WRI NGER Filed June 9, 1965 BYM'ML/ United States Patent fhce 3,345,906 Fatented Get. 17, 1967 3,346,906 MOP WRINGER Henry C. Harrison, 94 Bayview Ave., Port Washington, NPY. 11050, and Henry Harrison, 18 Frost Creek Drive, Locust Valley, N.Y. 11560 Filed .inne 9, 1965, Ser. No. 463,985 13 Claims. (Ci. 11S-262) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLSURE A mop wringer having a pair of generally complementary arcuate arms disposed with respect to one another so as to deiine a generally circular opening between them. A tubular wringer roller is received on each arm. Supports for the arms elastically urge the arms toward one another to resist enlargement of the generally circular opening. However, a rigid stop is provided to limit the approach of the arms toward one another thereby deiining the minimum size of the circular opening.

The foregoing abstract is not intended to be a comprehensive discussion of all of the principles, possible modes or applications of the invention disclosed in this document and should not be used to interpret the scope of the claims which appear at the end of this specication.

The present invention relates to mop wringers and more particularly to an improved pail mountable rnop wringer for string-type mops.

Viewing of disdain which most people exhibit or experience upon having to wring a wet mop by hand, the ingenuity of many have produced various mechanical aids which reduce or eliminate the amount of physical contact with the wet mop head requisite to mopping a floor.

Among these aids are wringing devices which are carried on the mop handles. A shortcoming of many of such devices is that the squeezing, pulling or pushing effort required for use may often be beyond the muscular prowess of the user. In addition the added bulk and presence of projecting elements in the vicinity of the mop head usually render such mops more undesirable from a weight standpoint and because of the damage which the projecting elements can iniiict on baseboards and the like if such mops are not used with a high degree of care.

Second among the types of aids which have been de- Veloped for wringing string mops and the like are wringers which are adapted to mount on a pail lip or mop sink side wall. Wringers of this type usually include either a pair of closely spaced generally cylindrical wringer rollers through which the mop head is drawn or a foraminous contractable basket into which the mop head is inserted. Wringers of these types are often objectionable because they occupy a considerable proportion of the pail and so require an amount of care and dexterity to insert the mop in the pail without snagging it lon the wringer. The type which includes a pair of generally cylindrical wringer rollers often over-squeezes the central bulkier portion of a wet string mop, but fails to suiiiciently squeeze the lateral edge regions of the mop which are are not so dense. For this reason it is often necessary when using a wringer of this type to rotate the mop about 90 degrees and pull the mop head through the wringer a second time in order to squeeze a suiiicient amount of liquid therefrom.

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a mop wringer which overcomes important shortcomings of prior art mop wringing devices as just noted.

It is a more particular object of the present invention to provide a mop wringer which is mountable on ordinary pails and is useful in uniformly wringing water from a wet mop head with a single pull of the mop head through the wringer arm portion of the device.

Yet another object of the present invention is the provision of a mop wringer which is adjustable for mounting on pails of varied size.

A further object of the invention is the provision of a mop wringer having curved wringing arms which receive freely rotatable curved wringing rollers.

Another object of the present invention is the .provision of a mop wringer of the type described wherein the curved wringing arms are, in the rest position thereof, disposed so closely to one another as to define a mop receiving opening smaller than the free transverse crosssectional area of the mop to be drawn therethrough and said arms being resiliently biased toward one another, but at the same time rigidly biased away from one another to provide a lower limit to the pressure which must be exerted by a mop head in order to expand the wring ing circle defined between the wringing arms.

These and other objects of the invention will become more clearly apparent during the course of the ensuing detailed discussion wherein specific reference is made to the attached drawings by which a preferred, though exemplary embodiment is illustrated.

In the drawings:

FIGURE l is a perspective view of a mop wringer embodying principles according to the present invention, the mop wringer being shown mounted for use on a pail, a mop usable therewith also being illustrated. Portions of the pail have been broken away to expose details which would otherwise be hidden thereby;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan View -of the wire form portion of the mop wringer shown in FIGURE 1 and FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the wire form portion of the mop wringer shown in FIG- URES 1 and 2.

The mop wringer 10 includes a foot piece 12 shown formed from an elongated strip of sheet metal or the like in which deep cuts have been made at 14 and the resultant tongue 16 folded upwardly at generally right angles to the remainder of the foot piece 12.

The two legs 18 defined on the piece 12 laterally out- Wardly from the cuts 14 are preferably barbed or serrated at 15 about their perimeters in order to grip the pail bottom for the purpose hereinafter described.

The tongue 16 is slotted at 20, the slot preferably having a vertical elongation for height adjustment reasons as will become apparent.

The wire form portion 22 of the wringer 10 includes a pair of nearly mirror image wire forms 24, 26. The otherwise independent wire forms are each secured at their lower ends as by spot welding at 28 to a generally horizontally directed screw 30. The latter is arranged to project through the slot 20 of the foot piece tongue 16 and be secured with respect to the tongue by a wing nut 32 or similar fastener received thereon,

The wire form 24, proceeding from the lower end 34 thereof curves approximately one quarter of the distance around the screw 30 in a counter clockwise direction at 36 then proceeds upwardly in an elongated generally straight portion 38 a substantial distance, for instance a distance of about three quarters of the height of a common household pail. As shown, the wire form 24 at the upper extent of the straight portion 38, curves upwardly, laterally then downwardly in the manner of an inverted U at 40. The U-shaped portion 40, viewed from above as best seen in FIGURE 2, forms an acute angle with the imaginary, vertical mirror image plane M. At its lower extent the inner leg 42 of the U-shaped portion 40 merges with a generally horizontally extending wringer arm 44 which as seen fronrabove is generally semi-cir-A cularly curved and progresses in a clockwise direction Fi from the leg 42. Adjacent its opposite end 46 the arm 44 is shown terminating in two short radius bends 48, 50 which together define an elementary helix. The bend 48 as illustrated is essentially a transition from horizontal-clockwise curved to horizontal-radially outwardly directed orientation and bend S from the latter to a generally verticalorientation.

The wire form 26, proceeding from the lower end 52 thereof curves approximately one quarter of the distance around the screw 30 in a clockwise direction at 54 then proceeds upwardly in an elongated generally straight portion 56 a substantial distance for instance equal to, adjacent, and parallel with the portion 38. As shown, the wire form 26 at the upper extent of the straight portion 56` curves upwardly, laterally then downwardly in the manner of an inverted U at 58. The U-shaped portion 58, which is similar to the portion 4t) viewed from above as best seen in FIGURE 2 forms an acute angle with the imaginary mirror image plane M, being on the opposite side of the plane from the portion 40.

The inner leg 60 of the U-shaped portion 58 is preferably substantially shorter than the inner leg 42 of the U-shapediportion 40 as best seen in FIGURES 1 and 2. At its lower extent the inner leg 60 merges with a generally horizontally extending wringer arm 62 which, as

viewed from above is generally semi-circularly curved and progresses in a counter-clockwise direction from the leg 60. Adjacent its opposite end 64 the arm 62 is shown terminating in two short radius bends 66, 68 which together define an elementary helix similar to that of the bends 48 and 50.

The bend 66 as illustrated is essentially a transition from horizontal-counterclockwise curved to horizontalradially outwardly directed orientation and the bend 68 from the latter to a generally vertical orientation.

Preferably the arms 44 and 62 substantially lie in generally vertically spaced horizontal planes, the plane of the arm 44 being below that of the arm 62 by virtue of the greater length of the leg 42 than the leg 60, the outer ends of the arms 44 and 62 are at least coterminous as seen in plan and preferably the end regions of the two arms are coextensive, for instance for about one inch of the end region of each arm.

The vertical gap G provides an entrance for the mop which is to be wrung as will be discussed further hereinafter.

Within the inverted U-shaped portions 40 and 50 a pail edge protector in the form of an inverted generally U-shaped channel 70 is received. This channel though shown as being linearly elongated, may be slightly arcuate if desired. The protector 70 is secured to each of the legs 42 and 60 by tabs 72 which curve outwardly, forwardly then inwardly so as to restrain the, movement of the legs 42 and 60 `away from one another. In the preferred form of the invention the tabs 72 are clinched sufliciently toward one another to rigidly bias the arms 44 and 62 away from one another by prestressing the wire form portions 38 and 56 which in the operation ofthe device act somewhat as torsion springs.

The mop wringer 10v is completed by a pair of generally semicircularly oriented tubular wringer rollers 74 each received on an arm 44, 62 preferably prior to the forming of the bends 48, 50, 66 and 68. These bends act as thrust bearings to prevent the rollers 74 from coming olf the outer ends of the arms during the rnop wringing operation thereof.

In order to provide the necessary resilience for the torsion action of the wringer portions 38 and 56 the wire forms 24 and 26 are preferably composed of steel wire which is bent to the orientation shown, on conventional wire-forming machines.

The rollers 74 are preferably composed of a relatively resilient, elastic material such as butadiene-styrene copolymers, butadiene-acrylonitrile copolymers, polychloroprene and other chlorinated synthetic rubber compositions;

silicone rubber compositions such as dimethyl siloxane; thermoplastic materials such as polyolen exemplified by polyethylene and polypropylene; vinyl resins such as vinyl chloride-vinyl acetate or vinyl chloride-vinyli-dene chloride copolymers; suitable polyamides or polyesters and the like. Toifacilitate the rotation of the rollers 74 on the arms 44 and 62 the material from which the rollers are fabricated may advantageously be lled with a surface lubricant such as carbon black or wax or similar materials known in the art.

The mop wringer 10 is particularly well adapted for use with stringl mops such as 76 the strings of which may have coatings of conventional celiulosic sponge material 78. Preferably, at the juncture of the mop handle Si) and the mop head 82, the mop has a slender crosssection, and is preferably curved similar to an S when seen in elevation. The Scurve can be fabricated by deforming a reinforced portion of a metal tubular mop handle or, for instance, by molding a transitional section 84 with such an S-curve, from suitably tough plastic material.

In order to wring a mop using the wringer 10, the wringer is tirst mounted on the pail by inserting the foot piece under the pail until the surface S6 of the tongue 16 engages the side of the pail as illustrated in FIGURE 1.

The wire form portion of thewringer is next adjusted so that the pail edge protector channel 7) is supported on and embraces the pail lip 88. The wing nut 32 is then tightened to secure the device in the orientation shown. The slot 20 through the foot piece not only aids in the securing of the wringer to the pail and its removal therefrom but also accommodates the wringer to pails of varied height. When positioned against the pail bottom the serrations 15 of thefoot piece v12 aid in gripping the pail and preventing relative movement of the foot piece and the pail during the wringing operation.

To wring a mop, the mop head is lowered into the pail sufficiently that the reduced width. preferably S-curved transitional portion between the mop head and handle is laterally adjacent the gap G. The mop is then moved laterally so that the transitional portion enters the area between the arms by way of the gap G.

The user then places his foot on the projecting portion of the foot piece 12 and pulls the mop handle upwardly thus extruding the mop head upwardly between the arcuate rollers 74 carried on the arcuate arms 44 and 62.

The arcuate rollers 74 roll as the mop head is wrung thus aiding its travel between the wringing arms. By virtue of the fact that the cross-sectional area of the space between the arms is substantially smaller than the mean transverse cross-sectional area of the mop head, the latter is compressed as it travels upwardly between the rollers 74 and by virtue of the mounting of the rollers 74 on torsion-sprung arms as noted hereinbefore the mop head to a greater or lesser extent depending on its bulk and the degree of tangling of the strings thereof, can urge the arms 44 and 62 away from one another by amounts proportional to such bulk.

Accordingly, when a mop is wrung utilizing a wringer as disclosed herein the compression of the mop head is essentially radially inwardly directed and the amount of such compression within the lower limit provided by the spring biasing function of the tabs 72 and the upper limit imposed by the elastic limit` of the torsion spring portions 38 and 56 of the wire forms, is substantially uniform regardless of the bulk or degree of tangle of the mop head.

It should now be apparent that the embodiments which is illustrated and deescribed herein effectively accomplishes each of the objects set forth hereinbefore and clearly points out the principles of the present invention. It should also be realized that the specific embodiment shown could be modified somewhat, for instance for mounting on a mop sink rather than a pail, without departing from the inventions principles and therefore the invention should be understood as encompassing all such modifications as are within the spirit and scope of the following claims.

We claim:

1. A mop wringer comprising: a pair of generally complementary arcuate arms disposed with respect to one another so as to dene a generally circular opening therebetween; means defining a tubular wringer roller received on each arm; and support means resilientlybiasing said arms in such sense as to resist movement of said arms away from one another thereby resiliently resisting enlargement of said generally circular opening whereby a wet mop drawn between said rollers on said arms is compressed in a generally radially inwardly direction to remove liquid from said mop.

2. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 1 wherein said rollers are substantially coextensive with said arms.

3. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 1 further cornprising bearing means at the arcuate ends of said arms to retain said rollers on said arms.

4. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 1 wherein said arms are supported at one end of each and the other end of each is free.

5. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 4 wherein the arms are substantially disposed in generally horizontal planes, said arms being so arcuately extensive that a short region of each arm defined adjacent the free end of each arm is arcuately coextensive with said region of the other.

6. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 5 wherein said short regions dene a vertical gap therebetween of a width sufficient to pass a -mop handle.

7. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 4 wherein said arms each comprise a length of metallic wire; and the support means comprise a generally inverted U-shaped wire section integrally joined by a first leg of each to each arm, an elongated, generally vertically directed torsion spring secured to a second leg of each inverted U-shaped wire section; and means joining said torsion springs to one another adjacent the lower end of each of said torsion springs.

8. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 7 wherein the support means further comprises a foot piece mountable against a pail bottom, means dening a tongue projecting upwardly from said foot piece to engage a pail side wall; means on said torsion springs adjacent the lower end thereof and on said tongue for adjustably securing said foot piece to said torsion springs and thereby provide a height adjustment `for said wringer to accommodate said wringer to pails of varying size.

9. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 3 wherein said foot piece further includes pail bottom gripping means on the upper surface thereof.

10. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 7 wherein said torsion springs comprise integral extensions of said inverted U-shaped wire sections.

11. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 10 further comprising means secured to said support means and pretensioning said torsion springs to provide a predeterminable lower limit to the force necessary in order to move said arms away from one another.

12. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 11 wherein said pretensioning means includes a pail upper edge protector and clinched tabs extending therefrom and around the first legs of said inverted U-shaped wire sections.

13. A mop wringer as set forth in claim 1, further comprising: rigid stop means engaging said arms and limiting approach of said arms toward one another to a greater distance than said approach if unrestrained, by said rigid stop means` thereby defining a minimum size for said general circular opening.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 605,362 6/1898 Trimble 15-262 2,223,147 11/1940 Cave 15-260 2,761,165 9/1956 Krzanowski 15-260 X 3,072,943 1/1963 Cone l5*119 3,084,365 4/1963 Vosbikian et al. 15-119 FOREIGN PATENTS 618,121 12/1926 France.

2,990 2/1908 Great Britain.

CHARLES A. WILLMUTH, Primary Examiner. DANIEL BLUM, Examiner. 

1. A MOP WRINGER COMPRISING: A PAIR OF GENERALLY COMPLEMENTARY ARCUATE ARMS DISPOSED WITH RESPECT TO ONE ANOTHER SO AS TO DEFINE A GENERALLY CIRCULAR OPENING THEREBETWEEN; MEANS DEFINING A TUBULAR WRINGER ROLLER RECEIVED ON EACH ARM; AND SUPPORT MEANS RESILIENTLY BIASING SAID ARMS IN SUCH SENSE AS TO RESIST MOVEMENT OF 